Dana Air crash: Lawyers accuse Prestige, others of laxity

A firm of solicitors and legal consultants, M.O. Awoyemi & Co , has accused Prestige Assurance PLC of neglecting the family members of those who died in the Dana Air crash in June, last year.

The firm, which represents 40 families, who died in the crash, said the insurance firm refused to pay its clients the mandatory $30,000 claims as stipulated by international law, seven months after the crash.

In a statement made available to The Nation and signed by its Managing Partner, Dr Bunmi Awoyemi, the law firm accused Prestige Assurance and its reinsurers, Pritchard Insurance Limited/Lloyd’s of London, of not caring for the family members of the crash victims.

He said of the 40 families, only 13 have been paid the $30,000 each.

He said out of the over 150 victims involved in the crash, only 80 of their family members have been compensated, adding that many of them include families, who lost more than one member. For such families, most of them were paid $30,000 per family, instead of the mandatory $30,000 per victim.

He said the insurer and re-insurers deliberately want to postpone the amount to be included with the balance of $70,000 they are offering to make victims family members sign-off their rights to a law suit.

He said: “They are doing this despite the fact that the Civil Aviation Act makes the payment of $30,000 per victim mandatory and payable within 30 days of any air crash.

”This wicked and callous action is being perpetrated by Prestige Assurance PLC and its re-insurer of 70 percent of the risk, Pritchard Insurance Limited/Lloyd’s of London, who have instructed their solicitors to pay only $30,000 per family, which explains why the Oyosoro’s and Ibe’s were each paid $30,000 instead of $60,000 despite the fact that they each lost two family members each. As of today, only one more of our remaining clients has been paid.”

Awoyemi condemned the Aviation Minister and the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) for allowing Dana Air to resume operationswhen it has not paid compensation.

He said: ”One hundred and sixty lives were lost; many of the relatives of the dead are still dealing with the issues arising from the death of their family members. In fact, some are yet to pick up the bodies of their dead relatives; while some family members only got body parts, others are yet to find the bodies of their relatives because their bodies were incinerated.

He said based on his earlier petition to the Aviation Committees of the Senate and the House of Representatives, a report recommending the withdrawal of Dana Airlines operating licence for a number of reasons, including the fact that they were yet to pay proper compensation to the victims of the crash was issued.

Furthermore, the House of Representatives passed a resolution adopting the recommendations of these Committees and called on the Minister of Aviation to implement the recommendations.

“I am shocked that the Minister of Aviation still went ahead to write Dana Airlines authorising their resumption of flight in defiance of the recommendations of the report of the Joint Aviation Committees of both the Senate and House of Representatives and in defiance of the resolutions of the House of Representatives.”

Awoyemi said what Dana and Prestige Assurance are doing in Nigeria cannot be tolerated in any other country. He called on the Federal Government and well-meaning Nigerians to warnDana and Prestige Assurance to respect Nigerians.

However, the Managing Director of Prestige Assurance Plc, Annand Mittal, denied the allegation. He said as soon as they receive the advice to pay, they would pay others.

He said the decision to pay comes from Dana Air management through their lawyers.

Mittal said, to date, they have paid 80 victims the mandatory 30 per cent, adding that the balance would be paid by Re-insurers, Pritchard Insurance limited and Lloyds of London.

He added that it is not their responsibility to determine who to pay, but that of Dana Management.